


Sin & Forgiveness

by Fitzrove



Category: Endeavour (TV)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Endeavour s7 Spoilers, F/M, Ficlet, Introspection, Lies, M/M, Multi, Not Cheating, POV Violetta Talenti, Polyamory, Romance, Seduction, Sexual Content, but don't worry guys the sanctity of the talentis' marriage is intact if there ever was any, i have no idea how to tag this, in the romantic sense cos morse is def being played for a fool here, not super dark but??? idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:20:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23629897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fitzrove/pseuds/Fitzrove
Summary: Morse told Violetta he wasn't good at forgiveness, but in the end, that didn't really ring true. It was hard to blame him, though, when her and Ludo both put so much effort into seducing him.Basically just a little under a thousand words of Violetta musing about her & Morse & Ludo's relationship.
Relationships: Endeavour Morse/Ludo Talenti, Endeavour Morse/Ludo Talenti/Violetta Talenti, Endeavour Morse/Violetta Talenti
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Sin & Forgiveness

_"Do you believe in sin?"_

In Venice, during the few days that were as much tinted with the lingering reminders of the past year as they were clues pointing to what lay ahead, Morse had said he wasn't very good at forgiveness.

At the time, Violetta had been able to believe it easily enough. Morse was a kind man, outwardly prickly in the way he responded to people he didn't consider worth his time, but gentle and almost fragile in how reverently he took Violetta to bed, how his eyes flashed in hurt when she took her teasing a bit too far. It was altogether new and made her terribly curious, since she was so accustomed to the way her husband would scoff and brush those things off. Not that Ludo was somehow above being insulted in a way that struck a chord, his pride being much too fragile for that, but he was far less open and, well, _forgiving_ than Morse. Despite anything Morse might've said about honour or duty or his sense of justice, he wasn't good at keeping his heart from straying. Violetta could see how much he loved the things he found worthy of it, the silent devotion that he couldn't put to words, the yearning for someone to understand how he felt without him having to tell them.

He was sweet and gentle like a dove, and Violetta wanted him, at least for now. Despite her husband's love for hunting birds, enjoying the wealth and presumed luxury associated with shooting down a small helpless creature and enjoying it as a delicacy at the banquet table, things wouldn't come to a violent end. In fact, she was growing more sure of it every day, since Ludo was clearly completely enamored by Morse too.

He might've said it was only for show, that having a pet policeman around was very good and would make their game against time and prying eyes that much easier, but Violetta could see how Ludo's eyes were shining the day he got back from the charity concert and the dinner date after it. He was smug when he told Violetta that things were going to plan, and some of the grin was undoubtedly plain greed and satisfaction, but Violetta had known Ludo long enough to see that there was genuine excitement too. To finally meet the man she had teased him with for months now, to test the waters with him to find the weakness Ludo was so obsessed with, to scope out how they could best mend him to their needs. But most importantly, Ludo had found someone who genuinely enjoyed music and poetry in a way that wasn't a pretense to make him seem more worldly and fine than he was. No, Morse _embodied_ those things, from his ridiculously soft and dreamy auburn locks all the way down to his unshined, once-proper leather shoes.

It was easy enough to believe Ludo when he told her that he'd kissed Morse when he went to visit him again later that week, and that Morse had kissed him back. That also explained what came later, when Morse's blue eyes locked with hers across the garden, and the flash of guilt in them when he saw Ludo and heard him introduce her as if they were strangers. It wasn't only the terror and pain of having been played for a fool that Violetta saw on his face, it was a feeling of a double betrayal. He was worried for himself, and sad about both Violetta and her husband in more ways than one.

It took more than a few words, a meal and a secret meeting in cars parked side by side to convince Morse that he wasn't unwanted, and that it had all been merely a misunderstanding. A plot, yes, but not against Morse, but to hide what they were after from the meddling high society circles Ludo and Violetta were supposedly part of. They both agreed that Morse didn't need to yet know that there was no charitable foundation. They had his heart, but revealing too much deceit at once would strain it far too close to its breaking point.

_"Would you forgive me if I did something bad?"_

Morse hadn't responded when she'd asked him outright, but she knew the answer now, leaning back in her chair with a glass of wine in her hand, messy and boneless and well-pleased from the generous advances she'd received from two very handsome men during the course of the night. She was watching an exhausted Morse melt against her husband's chest as Ludo stroked Morse's chin and spoke soft and quiet words into his ear. In the end it only took Ludo a kiss to the side of his neck to ease the trembling, to take away some of the heaviness in his limbs and convince Morse to ride him properly again, despite the probable ache at the backs of his thighs that was a result of making love for such a long while, always stopping before there was any real satisfaction.

There was only one answer to her question, and Violetta knew that Morse was aware of it as well, somewhere deep down.

He would forgive them both, many times over, to the point where he wouldn't even know _why_. Morse was too far gone to turn back now, and there was a beauty to it that made Violetta wonder if, perhaps, she loved him too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!! <3 I've been in a writing slump lately, so I needed to get SOMETHING done. Hopefully the Ludo piece I did earlier and this one will be enough to pull me out and let me work on the Bigger s7 project I've been planning. I'm desperate to read it already, but not at all fond of putting the writing work into it to make it happen... XD But I must take upon myself this burdensome task, because there's no way I'll get exactly the fic I want any other way.


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